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Veterans Day Facts

Facts about Veterans Day

What is Veterans Day?

Veterans Day is a federal holiday and a state holiday in all states. It is observed on the weekday nearest to November 11th. The holiday honours all veterans of the United States armed forces.

Facts about Veterans Day

The war which claimed the most American lives was the Civil war, with over 618,000 deaths, compared to 416,000 in World War II.

Memorial Day commemorates those who have laid down their lives for U.S. national defence, whereas Veterans Day honours all who have served their country.

While the holiday is often written or printed as Veteran's Day or Veterans' Day in calendars and advertisements, the United States government has declared that the attributive case is the official spelling.

In the USA, there are an estimated 20 Million veterans. Of these, Veterans from the Vietnam war are the largest group numbering over 7 million. There are 5.2 million veterans who served during the Gulf War Era.

About half of veterans of post-9/11 wars served with someone who was killed

Veterans Day was first celebrated as Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1919, just one year after the end of World War I. Congress passed legislation in 1926 for the day to become an annual observance. It became known as a national holiday in 1938

It wasn't until 1954 that President Dwight Eisenhower changed the name of the holiday from Armistice Day to Veterans Day

Between the years of 1971 and 1977, Veterans Day was celebrated on every fourth Monday during October. The holiday was changed back to its original date on Nov. 11, 1978, by President Ford.

California is home to most veterans in the US, with 1.7 million. Texas and Florida are next, with 1.5 million veterans.

There were 19.3 million veteran in the US in 2014; 1.6 million of these were female veterans.

The official definition of a veteran is someone who served on active duty for more than six months while assigned to a regular U.S. armed services unit.

Since 1776, 48 million Americans have served in the armed forces

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